Through the 1870’s, the exploration, mapping, and establishment of trading posts and treaties in the Congo Basin began to spark political interest in the region, especially from Belgium, France, and Portugal, that led to the partition of the region among European powers during the following decade.
From the late fifteenth century through the mid-nineteenth century, central Africa’s Congo Basin was an important focus for trade with Europeans, especially in slaves. As the Atlantic slave trade was gradually abolished during the nineteenth century, European interest in controlling the Congo began to grow, at the same time that many of the region’s African societies were becoming eager to unify under a European power for protection against their neighbors. Exploration of the region prepared the way for political jostling during the late 1870’s.
Explorers’ Routes in the Congo Basin
The story of nineteenth century central African exploration begins with David Livingstone
In 1872, before Stanley’s news reached Great Britain, the British explorer Verney Lovett Cameron was also sent to find Livingstone. By then Livingstone had died. After Cameron found Livingstone’s grave in 1873, he located Lake Tanganyika’s western outlet, the Lukuga River. Before heading southwest, he went farther west, to the Lualaba River, which some geographers thought might feed into the Nile. Although he went only a short distance on the Lualaba, he rightly surmised that it flowed into the Congo River, not the Nile.
In 1875, Cameron made a several-hundred-mile journey along the Congo-Zambezi
Seeing an opportunity to make money and secure a colony for his tiny European country, Leopold met with Cameron in 1876 and garnered support from several European countries in Brussels to establish the International African Association
By 1877, Leopold concluded that the best way to suppress slave
Stanley had already circumnavigated Lake Victoria and explored Lake Tanganyika
De Brazza felt that French interests were being threatened by Leopold and Stanley’s plans to create a west-to-east trading route along the Congo River, so he planned a new expedition of his own while he was in Paris. He decided to search for the Upper Congo from the source of the Ogowe and then travel by land to Stanley Pool (now Pool de Malebo) on the Lower Congo. He succeeded in reaching the Upper Congo ahead of Stanley in 1879. By the following year, he had obtained numerous treaties ceding control of the area to France, including one from Makoko, a tribal chief with wide hereditary claims to the surrounding territory. He built a fort on a village on the north side of Stanley Pool. The French protectorate he labored to establish officially became the French Congo in 1891, and the location where he built the fort became the colony’s capital, which was named Brazzaville in his honor.
Meanwhile, Stanley made his way upriver from the Congo’s mouth in 1879 and unexpectedly met de Brazza at Vivi, one of several trading and administrative stations Stanley had founded on his way upriver. Among de Brazza’s motives in moving downriver was to explore the possibility of building a railroad that would connect the trading posts in the region, an idea that Stanley had also championed. Not surprisingly, Stanley was annoyed to discover that de Brazza had reached the Upper Congo ahead of him. Meanwhile, King Leopold’s agents were intercepting de Brazza’s letters. When Leopold learned of de Brazza’s plans, he urged Stanley to hurry. Stanley finally reached the Upper Congo in 1881. He also secured treaties near Stanley Pool that would ultimately secure the south bank of the region for Leopold.
As Portugal
The European explorations of the Congo Basin paved the way for the partition of central Africa during the 1880’s among France, Portugal, and Leopold’s International Congo Association. De Brazza’s work led to the establishment of the French Congo, which became part of French Equatorial Africa after 1910, in the area making up much of the present-day Republic of the Congo. Portugal’s claim to the land between Mozambique
During the early 1880’s, Stanley completed a road from Vivi to the west coast and collected more than 450 treaties from tribal chieftains that ceded most of the Congo Basin to the International Congo Association. The association’s central African domain became the Congo Free State
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Cameron, Verney Lovett. Across Africa. 1877. Reprint. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969. Firsthand account of the Scottish explorer’s travels, with maps and illustrations. -
Capello, Hermenegildo Carlos de Brito, and Roberto Ivens. From Benguella to the Territory of Yacca. Translated by Alfred Elwes. 1882. Reprint. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969. This early translation of the Portuguese explorers’ account of their travels from 1877-1880 is still the best source in English for details about Capello and Ivens. Includes maps and illustrations. -
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. London: Pan, 2002. Scholarly but accessible work that focuses on the atrocities committed by the Congo Free State under the direction of Leopold II. Includes a section discussing the events that led up to creation of Leopold’s private African domain. -
Newman, James L. Imperial Footprints: Henry Morton Stanley’s African Journeys. Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 2004. Illustrated study of Stanley that concentrates on his journeys themselves, rather than on the psychology and personality of the explorer. -
West, Richard. Congo. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972. Illustrated study of the French, British, Belgian, and German explorations in the region includes an entertaining chronicle of de Brazza and Stanley’s personal rivalry.
Exploration of West Africa
Exploration of North Africa
Exploration of East Africa
Livingstone Sees the Victoria Falls
Berlin Conference Lays Groundwork for the Partition of Africa
Mary Kingsley; Leopold II; David Livingstone; Henry Morton Stanley.